Category: Biking in Baltimore

I strongly urge transportation planners and engineers in our region, especially Balt City and County, to take a look at this innovative new set of tools and consider local implementation. Conventional painted bike lanes and other "weak" measures including sharrows and off-road bike paths, that do little to create complete streets, IMO, are all inadequate tools for enabling a fundamental shift towards widespread "transportational" bicycle use in the region. The dense, interconnected grid of streets in Baltimore could easily accommodate a network of bike boulevards.

– SS on EnvisionBaltimore.

What are Bicycle Boulevards?

Bicycle boulevards take the shared roadway bike facility to a new level, creating an attractive, convenient, and comfortable cycling environment that is welcoming to cyclists of all ages and skill levels.

In essence, bicycle boulevards are low-volume and low-speed streets that have been optimized for bicycle travel through treatments such as traffic calming and traffic reduction, signage and pavement markings, and intersection crossing treatments. These treatments allow through movements for cyclists while discouraging similar through trips by nonlocal motorized traffic. Motor vehicle access to properties along the route is maintained.

Continue reading “Bicycle Boulevard Planning & Design”

Continue reading “Combined Charity Campaign Cycle/Walk Fundraiser”

For those of you who missed this line in the previous article Biking to school:
“We must also continue to ask the Baltimore Police Department to live up to their part of the bargain as outlined in the Baltimore Bicycle Master Plan.”

I am really not sure why the police continue to be unresponsive or why they think traffic safety is not an issue, in Baltimore 24% of our traffic fatalities are pedestrians or cyclists; Maryland 20.6%; national average 14%. DC’s pedestrian fatality rate is15.2/M ours is 17.3/M, National average 14.4/M. (2008 data) Approximately one third of Baltimore’s traffic victims are kids (13% of the population.) And we all know how well motorist yield to pedestrians around here, obey speed limits and generally drive safe.

It’s not like we don’t have some agencies on board but without the ability to enforce/give warnings for moving violations, I’m not sure how effective of a Street Smart campaign we are going to have.
Continue reading “Baltimore police responcable for 49 lives lost and 7,686 people injured in 2008”

We all know that getting around without a car in Baltimore can be a frustrating experience. It’s especially difficult for many students, who rely on an often-late bus system to get to school. This problem is exacerbated by the occasional actions of a few students, who have tainted the image of students riding public transit, and strained relations with the MTA.

Clearly this is a problem that needs to be addressed, and many people and organizations are working toward solutions.

This summer is the perfect time to encourage kids to try a new form of transportation, which they can use in the fall to get to and from school: Biking.

Biking to school would eliminate the frustrating experience of waiting for bus transfers, increase visibility of bikers in the city during commute times, and have the added benefit of providing healthy exercise for students in our community.

Along with advocating cycling to school, we must promote safe biking practices. Students should be required to wear helmets, and learn proper cycling techniques. Most importantly, we must pass statewide legislation promoting equal use of roadways and an enforced three-foot passing rule. We must also continue to ask the Baltimore Police Department to live up to their part of the bargain as outlined in the Baltimore Bicycle Master Plan.
Continue reading “Biking to school”

Calling All Baltimore City Cycle or Walk Enthusiasts! Join us at the Baltimore City 2009 CCC Cycle/Walk Fundraiser Friday, September 4, 2009 7:30 am – 9:30 am. Routes are from City Hall Plaza and back. Registration $20 Proceeds benefit the 2009 Baltimore City Combined Charity Campaign. .Register at cccregistration [at] baltimorecity.gov. First 100 people to register by August 28,2009 will get an event t-shirt while supply lasts. On-site registration on September 4, 2009 begins at 6:30 am. Bike rentals are available for an additional $10.

The good news is we are getting bicycle accommodations for most of the project area. But for the section of Harford Rd between Erdman and Chesterfield the community was given options:

Option 1 – Oppose
Title: Median and narrow travel lanes
A nice median (traffic calming??? and being space for green plants and trees) and 4 10 foot travel lanes (2 each way,) with off-peek parking allowed in the outside lanes putting cyclists in the reaming narrow travel lane. Ugh!

Option 2 – Support
Title: No median and wide outside lanes
No median, inner travel lanes 10 feet and outer travel lanes 13.5 feet. This at least gives cyclists some extra width in the outside lane both when there is traffic and when there is parking.

Option 3 – Support
Title: Median, two travel lanes and bike lanes
This option came up during the meeting and I am not sure how viable it is but none the less cool. Remove two travels lanes and on-street parking to accommodate both a median and bike lanes. This will make this section of Harford Rd a two lane road rather then a four lane Rd have a calming effect on traffic.

Please send your support for the option of your choice and voice opposition to option 1.
Continue reading “Action: Harford Rd – accommodate cyclists please”

Upcoming Events at the Hostel:

Every Morning, 8:15am to 10:30am –  FREE make your own pancake breakfast.  We provide the batter and the syrup, you do the rest!

Thursday Nights, 7pm – Join other hostellers for a pasta dinner, cook out, or make your own pizza! Share travel tales, make new friends, or simply enjoy some good food.  Dinner is $3 to $5 depending upon whats being served.   

Weekly Events – Be sure to check out the weekly events available only to hostellers staying the hostel.  The events are listed throughout the hostel and are a great way to meet people and disocover the city.

Sunday August 30th: Last Sunday Last Rites! 7pm*
Monthly event at the Baltimore Hostel featuring local writers, poets, and musicians presenting an eclectic night of spoken word and music.  Free!
Sunday September 20th @ 1pm: Hog Day!*
Rich Casciato will share his travel tales from his cross-country adventures on his Harley Hog (motorcycle).  Come and find out what riding the open road on that most American of machines, a Harley-Davidson, is all about.  Since Rich is HI-Baltimore’s official photographer,there will be lots of great photos and hog-appropriate food.  Hog parking will be available. 

Sunday October 4th @ 2pm: Bicycling and Hostelling*
Join fellow hostelers as they share their stories of bicycle trips along the Atlantic Coast, Pacific Coast and beyond.  Bring your tales of trials and conquest as we share how one and all can see the world via cycle and keep it economical via hostels. 

*All special day events are a suggested donation of $3 to $5.  No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Continue reading “Bicycling and Hostelling”

Proceeds go to the Harry and Jeanette Wineburg Cancer Institite. Big wheel race and rock party with live local music presented by Arden Studios featuring Girls Like Cigarettes and others.
September 19, 2009, Loch Raven Village. The event will begin at 1:00 p.m.
Continue reading “Big Wheel Race for Cancer Part Deux- Rock and Ride”

There are a lot of obstacles that Nate Evans considers when he designates a bicycle route.

Baltimore’s bicycle pedestrian planner – yes, this is his official title – accounts for potholes, the quality of pavement and how fast cars travel on a particular street. (He calls Northern Parkway a "speedway" that should be avoided by the pedaling crowd.)

But there’s another factor that has to be part of the bicycle-loving mayor’s Bike Baltimore campaign to mark cycling routes throughout the city.

Crime.

Evans, who works for the city’s Department of Transportation, has been quietly recording crimes against bicyclists. He incorporates the information into routes he’s mapping, to advise two-wheel commuters on the most efficient way to get from places like Park Heights to downtown without getting beaten, mugged or pelted with rocks.

Based on his statistics, which he acknowledges are incomplete, he advises, for example, that bicyclists leaving Johns Hopkins Hospital avoid most east-side streets and instead pedal south to Highlandtown and head west.

From Northwest Baltimore, he recommends using Eutaw Street instead of the quicker Druid Hill Avenue to get downtown.

"It’s out of their way, but they’ll get there a lot safer," Evans said.

The idea came from Mayor Sheila Dixon, an avid cyclist who often invites residents and commuters on rides, after a guest told of being shot with a BB gun while riding on Calhoun Street in West Baltimore.
Continue reading “An eye on potholes and crime”

Segment Originally Aired May 13, 2009
 (11:36)
Biking your commute is better for you and for the environment, but just how easy is it to do in Baltimore? Our producers bring us along as they do their best to bike into work. Baltimore City’s Bike Planner Nate Evans, and the president of one less car Greg Cantori also join us to talk about how bike-able Baltimore is.

Baltimore’s biking scene continues to grow! You can bike around Baltimore on the upcoming Tour Du Port Bike ride on October 4th. The Harford Road Beautification Project might be putting bike lanes in their community, you can find out more at their community meeting on August 26th.

External Links:
Tour Du Port Ride
Harford Road Beautification project Meeting (PDF)
Biking Baltimore
One Less Car
Continue reading “Baltimore’s Bikeability – Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast”